The first in the CMI Seminar series for 2019/2020
Abstract
This seminar will highlight some of the work from the Wellbeing, Health, Retirement and the Lifecourse (WHERL) project that investigated a crucial question for ageing societies: how inequalities across the lifecourse relate to paid work in later life in the UK.
The project brought together an interdisciplinary consortium of academics whose aim was to investigate lifecourse influences on later life work and the implications for wellbeing, health and financial outcomes of working up to and beyond State Pension Age.
This is an issue of growing importance since the UK, in common with many other Governments across the world, has implement policies to encourage longer working lives. These policies include increases to the State Pension Age (set to rise to age 67 by 2028), removal of default retirement ages, and the Government’s ‘Fuller Working Lives’ and ‘Age Positive’ initiatives. These aim to encourage older individuals to engage with paid work later in life, as well as offering guidance to employers on effectively managing an ageing multi-generational workforce.
These policy reforms affect millions of people, yet their implications for health, wellbeing and financial circumstances are unknown. Do these policies harm, benefit or have little effect on the population? The WHERL project examined the lifelong drivers affecting the complex relationship between paid work in later life, health, wellbeing and retirement income, in order to answer this question.
Tea/coffee and cakes from 2.45. ALL WELCOME! No registration needed.
Biography
Professor Glaser has been at King’s College London for more than 20 years, Karen has three main research interests including i) life course research, focusing on the longitudinal relationship between work and family histories and later life health and wellbeing; ii) family care, with a particular focus on cross-national comparisons; and iii) the impact of lifelong disorders and disabilities on the health of affected individuals and their families.
